D00 1.d4 d5: Unusual lines (1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nc3 Bf5 4.Bf4)

Over three years ago a game was played at Red Hot Pawn, which I am going through today. The first critical moment of the game was seen after 9.Bxe4. I had two ways to take the bishop and alas I chose the inferior one, 9...dxe4. The difference between the two moves is that in the game continuation the knight from f3 can move to g5 and I could have ended in serious trouble, had I tried to defend the pawn with 10...Qc6 because of the reply 11.d5 and my position would have fallen apart, but had I played 9...Bxe4, my bishop would have been either a better bishop than on the game continuation or the knight on c3 would have captured it. I would have taken the knight with my pawn and the knight would have needed to move to d2, for instance, which is a passive square for the knight.

Then I would have just simply defended the pawn on e4 with f5. In the game marieclaire played 10.Nh4 and went after my bishop. That was actually a good sign from my point of view, as I was able improve my position without any real dangers to worry about. The second important moment in the game was seen in my opinion after my 15th move Bg6. There my opponent played 16.f3, which did not look like a good idea because after I took it with my e-pawn, the scope of my bishop was increased and it targeted the pawn on c2. My opponent probably thought that it would not be that dangerous and marieclaire did get a double attack on b7 and f6 with the queen, when she took the pawn on f3.

The double attack was not that dangerous because I moved my knight to d5 and blocked the diagonal. Marieclaire then took on d5 and I had a choice to capture the knight with the queen or with the pawn. I captured it with the pawn, since I did not like the idea of trading queens for some reason. Alas, it would seem that 18...Qxd5 was the correct capture and for a brief moment the position had became roughly equal once again.

Marieclaire's final downhill started with the move 19.Rdf1, sometimes it is important which rook to move... The rook was needed on d1 because in order to improve the location of the knight, it needs to go to d3 via e1 and when it lands on d3, it would be possible to take it with the bishop and if the rook is not there, a pawn in front of the king would need to capture and problems could be seen on the horizon. I continued the game by castling on the queenside and then marieclaire made a huge blunder, 20.Qf6, which was the reason I eventually won the game. It lost a pawn due to the continuation 20...Qxf6 21.Rxf6 hxg4 and marieclaire could not safely take back with the h-pawn due to the pin on the h-file. The game was easy to play after that but my opponent only resigned after 31...g2, when it was clear that I would promote one of my pawns on the next move.

[Event "Corr game 15.5.2014-23.6.2014"] [Site "http://www.redhotpawn.com"] [Date "2014.05.15"] [Round "?"] [White "marieclaire"] [Black "Vierjoki, Timo"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D00"] [WhiteElo "1588"] [BlackElo "1863"] [Annotator "Stockfish 8 64 POPCNT (30s), TV"] [PlyCount "62"] [EventDate "2014.??.??"] 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 {Queen Pawn Game: Symmetrical Variation} 3. Nc3 (3. c4 dxc4 {Queen's Gambit Accepted: Deferred}) (3. e3 e6 4. Bd3 c5 5. b3 {Queen Pawn Game: Rubinstein Variation}) 3... Bf5 4. Bf4 {D00 1 d4 d5: Unusual lines} e6 5. a3 Bd6 6. Bxd6 (6. Bg5 Nbd7 7. Nb5 O-O 8. Nxd6 cxd6 9. e3 Qb6 10. b3 Rfc8 11. Bd3 Bxd3 12. Qxd3 Qa5+ 13. b4 Qa4 14. Rc1 Rc6 15. Bf4 Rac8 16. O-O Rc3 17. Qd1 Ne8 18. Ra1 Nb6 19. Ne1 Nc4 20. Qc1 Nc7 {Dollah,Z (2200)-Nguyen,T (2404) Bandar Seri Begawan 2001 0-1}) (6. Bg3 Bxg3 7. hxg3 Nc6 8. e3 a6 9. Bd3 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 Qd6 11. O-O-O O-O-O 12. Ng5 Rd7 13. e4 dxe4 14. Ncxe4 Nxe4 15. Nxe4 Qxd4 16. Qxd4 Rxd4 17. Rxd4 Nxd4 18. Ng5 h6 19. Nxf7 Rf8 20. Ne5 Rxf2 {Salazar Rojas, M-Malgac,O Porto Carras 2013 0-1}) 6... Qxd6 7. e3 a6 8. Bd3 Ne4 $146 ( 8... Bxd3 9. cxd3 O-O 10. h3 Nc6 11. O-O e5 12. Nxe5 Nxe5 13. dxe5 Qxe5 14. d4 Qg5 15. Rc1 c6 16. Na4 Ne4 17. Nb6 Rad8 18. Re1 Rd6 19. Rc2 Re8 20. Na4 Rh6 21. Qf3 Rhe6 22. Qf4 Qxf4 23. exf4 {Duong,T-Le,T Ho Chi Minh City 2005 0-1 (41)}) ( 8... Bg6 9. Ne5 Nbd7 10. Nxd7 Qxd7 11. Bxg6 hxg6 12. Qd2 Qd6 13. h3 O-O-O 14. O-O-O Kb8 15. Rhe1 Rde8 16. e4 dxe4 17. Nxe4 Nxe4 18. Rxe4 Qd5 19. Qe3 Qa2 20. Qc3 Rhf8 {0-1 (20) Charlier,P (1591)-Burnay,G (1850) Fontaine 2009}) 9. Bxe4 dxe4 (9... Bxe4 10. Nxe4 dxe4 11. Nd2 $11) 10. Nh4 Nd7 11. Qe2 (11. Qh5 $5 g6 12. Qh6 $14) 11... Nf6 $11 12. h3 {Consolidates g4} h5 13. O-O-O Bh7 14. g4 { White threatens to win material: g4xh5} g5 {Black threatens to win material: g5xh4} 15. Ng2 Bg6 (15... hxg4 16. h4 gxh4 17. Rxh4 O-O-O $11) 16. f3 (16. h4 $142 $5 {must be considered} O-O-O 17. hxg5 Nxg4 18. Nf4 $14) 16... exf3 $17 { Black forks: e2+g2} 17. Qxf3 Nd5 18. Nxd5 (18. Ne2 O-O-O 19. e4 Qc6 $17) 18... exd5 {White has a new backward pawn: e3. Black has a new backward pawn: f7} ( 18... Qxd5 19. Qxd5 exd5 20. Rhf1 $17) 19. Rdf1 (19. Rhf1 O-O-O 20. Ne1 Rdf8 $15) 19... O-O-O $17 20. Qf6 $4 {strolling merrily down the path to disaster} ( 20. Qe2 $142 Kb8 21. Ne1 $17) 20... Qxf6 $19 21. Rxf6 hxg4 22. h4 Rde8 (22... Be4 $142 {keeps an even firmer grip} 23. Rg1 gxh4 24. Nxh4 Rxh4 25. Rxf7 $19) 23. Re1 (23. Rff1 {is one last hope} Be4 24. Rfg1 $19) 23... gxh4 24. Nf4 (24. Rh1 {doesn't improve anything} h3 25. Nf4 Be4 $19) 24... Be4 25. Rxf7 Reg8 26. Ne6 c6 27. Nc5 h3 28. Nxe4 dxe4 29. Kd2 g3 30. Ke2 h2 31. Rh1 (31. Rff1 { does not help much} g2 32. Kd2 g1=Q 33. Rxg1 Rxg1 34. Re2 h1=Q 35. Kc3 Qf3 36. Re1 Rxe1 37. d5 cxd5 38. Kb4 Qf8+ 39. Ka4 Qe8+ 40. Kb3 Qb5+ 41. Ka2 Qc4+ 42. b3 Qxc2#) 31... g2 (31... g2 32. Rff1 gxh1=Q 33. Rxh1 Rg2+ 34. Kd1 Rf8 35. Kc1 Rff2 36. Kb1 Rxc2 37. a4 Rxb2+ 38. Ka1 Rbf2 39. Rd1 Rg1 40. Rb1 Rxb1+ 41. Kxb1 h1=Q#) 0-1

There were actually three reference games that I was able to find when looking the position after 4.Bf4 and where both players were rated over 2500, but one of the games I did not include because it was a 10 move draw. That game was also played by Grandmaster Ulf Andersson.

[Event "Kloosters"] [Site "Ter Apel"] [Date "1997.03.18"] [Round "2"] [White "Andersson, Ulf"] [Black "Khalifman, Alexander"] [Result "1/2-1/2"] [ECO "A46"] [WhiteElo "2655"] [BlackElo "2650"] [PlyCount "31"] [EventDate "1997.03.17"] [EventType "tourn"] [EventRounds "5"] [EventCountry "NED"] [EventCategory "16"] [SourceTitle "CBM 058"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "1997.06.01"] 1. Nf3 d6 2. d4 Nf6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bf4 Bf5 5. e3 c6 6. Bd3 e6 7. O-O Be7 8. h3 O-O 9. Rb1 Nbd7 10. b4 Bg6 11. Ne5 Nxe5 12. Bxe5 Nd7 13. Bg3 Bf6 14. Ne2 b5 15. Nf4 Nb6 16. Nxg6 1/2-1/2 [Event "Champions Challenge 178th"] [Site "playchess.com INT"] [Date "2006.12.23"] [Round "4.2"] [White "Moradiabadi, Elshan"] [Black "Drozdovskij, Yuri"] [Result "0-1"] [ECO "D02"] [WhiteElo "2539"] [BlackElo "2561"] [PlyCount "58"] [EventDate "2006.12.23"] [EventType "k.o. (blitz)"] [EventRounds "6"] [EventCountry "GER"] [SourceTitle "EXT 2008"] [Source "ChessBase"] [SourceDate "2007.11.25"] 1. d4 d5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nc3 Bf5 4. Bf4 e6 5. e3 Bd6 6. Ne5 Nfd7 7. g4 Bxe5 8. dxe5 Bg6 9. h4 h5 10. g5 Nc6 11. Bb5 Nb4 12. Ba4 c6 13. a3 Na6 14. b4 Nc7 15. Bb3 a5 16. O-O Qe7 17. Qd4 b6 18. Ba4 b5 19. Bb3 a4 20. Ba2 O-O 21. e4 Rfd8 22. Rad1 Rac8 23. f3 c5 24. bxc5 Nxc5 25. exd5 exd5 26. Qe3 N5e6 27. Nxd5 Nxd5 28. Bxd5 Nxf4 29. Qxf4 Qc5+ 0-1